Deep brain stimulation
hideIn neurotechnology, deep brain stimulation (DBS) is a surgical treatment involving the implantation of a medical device called a brain pacemaker, which sends electrical impulses to specific parts of the brain. DBS in select brain regions has provided remarkable therapeutic benefits for otherwise treatment-resistant movement and affective disorders such as chronic pain, Parkinson’s disease, tremor and dystonia. Despite the long history of DBS, its underlying principles and mechanisms are still not clear. DBS directly changes brain activity in a controlled manner, its effects are reversible (unlike those of lesioning techniques) and is one of only a few neurosurgical methods that allows blinded studies.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved DBS as a treatment for essential tremor in 1997, for Parkinson's disease in 2002, and dystonia in 2003. DBS is also routinely used to treat chronic pain and has been used to treat various affective disorders, including major depression. While DBS has proven helpful for some patients, there is potential for serious complications and side effects.
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News tagged with deep brain stimulation
New therapy gives hope for very severe depression
Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry
Nov 02, 2009 |
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Thanks to a new method there is a reason for hope for patients with very severe depression. German physicians at the University Clinics of Bonn and Cologne have treated ten patients with deep brain stimulation. ...
Deep brain stimulation may be effective treatment for Tourette's syndrome
Medicine & Health / Neuroscience
Oct 27, 2009 |
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Deep brain stimulation may be a safe and effective treatment for Tourette syndrome, according to research published in the October 27, 2009, print issue of Neurology.
Scientists review deep brain stimulation to treat psychiatric diseases
Jun 29, 2009 |
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Pioneering therapeutic trials to investigate the effectiveness of deep brain stimulation (DBS) in hard-to-treat depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and Tourette's syndrome are underway at multiple medical centers ...
Deep Brain Stimulation Found to be Effective in Children with Treatment-Resistant Generalized Primary Dystonia
May 05, 2009 |
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Dystonia is a very complex, highly variable neurological movement disorder characterized by involuntary muscle contractions. As many as 250,000 people in the United States have dystonia, making it the third most common movement ...
Shedding some light on Parkinson's treatment
Apr 16, 2009 |
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A research team lead by Karl Deisseroth in the bioengineering department at Stanford University has developed a technique to systematically characterize disease circuits in the brain. By precisely controlling ...
Novel spinal cord stimulator sparks hope for Parkinson's disease treatment
Medicine & Health / Neuroscience
Mar 19, 2009 |
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A novel stimulation method, the first potential therapy to target the spinal cord instead of the brain, may offer an effective and less invasive approach for Parkinson's disease treatment, according to pre-clinical data published ...
Study improves insights into Parkinson's disease and possible treatments
Mar 19, 2009 |
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About the only thing doctors have understood about deep-brain stimulation, which is widely used to treat Parkinson's disease symptoms, is that somehow it works for many patients. In a new study that will be published March ...
The sweet spot? Doctors test targets for Parkinson surgery
Medicine & Health / Neuroscience
Mar 13, 2009 |
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Doctors may be able to tailor a specialized form of brain surgery to more closely match the needs of Parkinson patients, according to results from the first large-scale effort to compare the two current target areas of deep ...
